In 1973/74 Scotland was the first of the Home Nations to set up a domestic league.
Before the birth of the league clubs played friendly matches and newspaper calculated an unofficial table to crown an unofficial scottish champion. The championship was always awarded on the basis of the results between the teams in the championship table only which meant that games against clubs from England or further afield were not counted. Up until 1939 the honour was awarded to the club with the fewest defeats, which led to several seasons where the championship was shared. After 1945 it became more commonplace to determine the champion club based on the percentage of games won.

The league pyramid

The last reform of the league pyramid was in 2014. Since 2014/15 season the league structure is the following: